Transactions made over the Internet typically require for a consumer to have a payment card; or a digital wallet, which is an account registered with a payment service provider (such as PayPal™) that is linked to a source of funds, that can make the payment for such transactions. An example of such transactions would be the purchase of software applications that are designed to operate in a smart phone, the transaction being performed using the smart phone.
There exists a pool of consumers who have access to a smart phone, but do not have access to a payment card or cannot enroll with a payment service provider. To tap this pool of consumers, several software application merchants have tied up with telecommunication service providers to offer direct carrier billing. Direct carrier billing is a method of payment that charges payment directly to a consumer's telephone bill. However, for a telecommunication service provider to provide direct carrier billing services to subscribers, its systems have to be integrated with the merchant systems. Such integration is complicated and time consuming, which could discourage a telecommunication service provider from offering a direct carrier billing service, since the cost to undertake the integration may outweigh the revenue benefits obtained from offering this service.
There thus is a need to more readily have a service provider, such as a telecommunication service provider, allow their subscribers to make online transactions on the basis of their registration with the service provider.